The Betrayal of Me, By You
by demeter18
Summary: A fire, a misunderstanding a lot can happen in 2 weeks-is it the end of a beautiful dream or just a fogged mirror designed to confuse Peyton.


**Charlotte (bendecida82) challenged me to write this is 30mins-she timed me this is what I wrote-hope you guys like it!**

She woke up in the same position from the night before; her hands were tightly clutching a pillow that was moist to the touch. She had been crying herself to sleep and apparently even unconscious she still cried long after her mind was supposed to be at rest.

It had been 2 weeks since he had been gone, 14 days since she last felt his arms wrapped around her in a comforting and loving embrace. It had been 336 long hours since he had filled the lounge with the sound of his laughter. It had been 20,160 minutes since he had placed his lips against hers and pulled her deeper into him. It felt a lot longer than that, it felt like years had passed, centuries had marched on by and she had just sat in the corner too devastated to move-in case it all became too real for her.

It had been like any other morning, she had gotten up taken a shower, gotten ready for work. They had eaten breakfast together like they had done a thousand mornings before that, she had kissed him goodbye and winked cheekily at him. The call had come in the morning at exactly 10am, her house was on fire. She jumped in her Comet and broke all the speed limits in her rush to get there; she parked haphazardly in the street and ran up the driveway. It was chaos there were fire engines and curious neighbours all standing there as the firemen put out the blaze that had engulfed the lounge.

That's when she noticed a scantily clad woman being comforted by someone who looked suspiciously like Lucas. It couldn't be, he had dressed for work and she knew he had a full morning-or at least she thought he did. His arms were wrapped around her intimately, too intimately for it to be innocent. She strode over to the unlikely couple; she planted both her feet directly in front of her wayward spouse and looked him directly in the eyes.

'How long Lucas? And don't you dare lie to me. How long have I been insignificant to you to us?' Peyton was fuming, her anger was boiling over almost to breaking point, and the woman visibly cowered at the sight of this very real and ferocious looking woman stood before her.

'What? How long has what been going on?' Lucas looked at Peyton and the woman in his arms confusion etched across his features.

'So not only are you going to lie to me, but you are also going to pretend that I'm imagining seeing you in the arms of another woman? You are unbelievable; I mean we did this to Brooke. This is how she must have felt when we betrayed her, but never in my wildest dreams did I envision a future where this very same thing would be happening to me. I want you out of the house before I get back from work tonight. I don't wanna hear excuses-just don't be here when I get home'.

Peyton left, she stalked over to her car and slammed the door shut, she cranked her music on and reversed out of the drive in one fluid movement. She tore off the down the street without so much as a glance behind her. Her music managed to soothe her racing mind somewhat, but by the time she arrived back at her office the tears began to fall.

She sat alone in her office and just let it all out. She turned off of her phone and locked the door and just sat there. She felt utterly soul broken; it felt a lot like the end of everything that had ever really meant something to her. She couldn't believe that they had survived shootings, psychos, an almost marriage, a baby that almost never was and what finally ended True Love Always was an infidelity it felt so cheap and nasty.

It seemed that even the most inauspicious of things could end up shattering the pieces of what was a beautiful dream, one she had believed in for so long now she didn't know how to define herself without it. Truth be told she didn't want to define herself in a world where she wasn't with Luke, he was her soul mate in every sense of the word and now she really didn't know what to do. She felt so lost and disconnected, she knew that she would never be the same after this, he had broken her in small ways that had become gaping tears in the very fibre of her being.

Sawyer would now be brought up in a single parent household, it was a life she had never wanted for her little girl. He had finally done it, he had broken her, she knew that right then in that moment there was no coming back from this, she would never believe in the beauty of love again. She may fall in love again but it would always be tainted by this betrayal, this promise of a forever that became a lie that twisted like a knife in your stomach. She felt the dread threaten to overwhelm her, how would she explain this to Sawyer, she could barely process it herself, she would just tell her mummy and daddy are taking some time apart to figure some stuff out.

She went home and saw his side of the closet was empty, he had forgotten a hoodie and it lay on the floor in the corner, she picked it up and inhaled his scent. Her face coursed with tears as memories of their life together flashed in her mind like a movie. Every minute she didn't think about it, there would be two more where it was all she could think about, she didn't know how to not think about it and ache in places that she thought were long healed.

He called on the 15th day and said he hadn't cheated on her, the woman he was cradling was a neighbour who had come running out of her house when he started screaming about trying to find Sawyer. He had tried calling her but she rejected all his calls and all attempts by Haley to get them together had been rejected by Peyton who was feeling too devastated to deal with it all. He came home on the 16th day and Peyton once again felt his arms wrap around her in a comforting and loving embrace.


End file.
